Her Bulldog Boy
by mimimarsbars
Summary: She is eight when Trespasser attacks San Francisco in 2013. She is ten when Karloff destroys her home in Vancouver. She is eleven when she arrives on the steps of the Hong Kong Shatterdome and asks for Hercules Hansen. She is thirteen the first time Chuck Hansen kisses her. She is fifteen the first time she realizes she's in love. (Chuck/OC - Rated M for later chapters)
1. Chapter 1 - Age 8

Her parents run around the room in a flurry, pulling out drawers and stuffing things carelessly into suitcases as they continue on a rampage throughout the apartment. Outside, the ground shakes with the weight of two giants. As Karloff destroys the vicinity of their Vancouver apartment, the Emmett family struggled to gather their belongings and run to safety, if such a thing was possible.

"Charles, we're out of time!" Her mother yells as the sound of the jets gets nearer and nearer. Evidently, that's the last thing she says, as in the second after the last syllable leaves her mouth the side of the building her mother is in is ripped into the air, and the terrifying face of Karloff is exposed through the new hole. She is eight, and the cry of absolute despair that erupts from her mouth at the loss of her mother is one the world will never forget. But there is little time to mourn.

"Go!" Her father yells, pushing her out the door and towards then window on the opposite side. He throws a red backpack at her as she stumbles out on to the fire escape and beings climbing down.

"Daddy!" She calls behind her, pausing to glance backwards just as he climbs out on to the rickety metal staircase.

"I'm right behind you!" He yells back desperately, fleeing two flights behind his daughter. But the next giant is not Karloff, it is a being of metal and fire. She screamed as the first Jaeger deployed to fight a kaiju swings, taking off the top half of the building and the portion of the fire escape attached, the same portion with her father on it, into the air. Then she cries for her father as she runs, the too-large red backpack swinging on her shoulders. She hits the ground and keeps running, stumbling and tearing the skin on her hands and arms as she ducks through destroyed alleys and torn down buildings in an attempt to evade the monster rampaging through the city.

When the police scour the city for survivors, they find her curled up in the remains of a bank, hugging the backpack to her chest as she hid beneath the shattered remains of a wooden desk. Later, when she sits in the small make-shift hospital area allocated for the survivors, she digs through the backpack and finds an old cigar box filled with odds and ends: an old Swiss Army Knife, a marathon bib, and a crumbling photo of two men with their arms around each other in what looks like an airplane hanger. She flips the photo over and finds, in scrawling handwriting that isn't her father's, "I OWE YOU - HERC HANSEN."

She has found her lifeline. Herc Hansen, wherever he is, whoever he is, is her last chance.

***Quick A/N: this is an AU-ish in which Chuck grows up in the Hong Kong Shatterdome with his father, Pentecost, and Mako Mori, although in canonverse he and his father live in Sydney until they join the Jaeger program when he is twelve. Otherwise, enjoy!**


	2. Chapter 2 - Age 11

"Herc," Stacker Pentecost says, peeking his head through the metal door of the room Hercules Hansen shares with his son. Herc is caught in one of the rare moments where he is in his room instead of navigating through the Hong Kong Shatterdome, where he is currently staying after a deployment in Victoria Harbor, or running through the systems on Lucky Seven, the Jaeger he operates with his brother, Scott.

"Yeah?" He responds in a gruff voice, putting down the manual he was thumbing through. Chuck is out with Mako Mori, a girl Pentecost had adopted from the ruins of Tokyo after Onibaba and the only other child around Chuck's age in the Shatterdome.

"There's a girl asking for you," His friend replied solemnly. Herc smiles slyly, kicking back in his chair.

"Tons of girls ask for me, Pentecost, what's so grand about this one?"

"She's eleven," Pentecost revises, "and she says Charles Emmett sent her." Upon hearing this Herc stands up straight, knocking the manual down to the floor.

"Where is she?" Pentecost tells him that she's waiting for him in the Kwoon and he quickly pushes past him, through the door until he explodes into the hallway, marching in the direction of the Kwoon until he arrives. She sits on a chair they've pulled out, and Newton and Hermann sit across from her on identical chairs. Newton is talking to her about all sorts of kaiju nonsense and Hermann is scolding him for it, telling him he's scaring her. When he explodes into the room, Pentecost behind him, she stands up. There are tears waiting to fall in her eyes.

"Are you Hercules Hansen?" she asks, her adolescent voice full of hope. Herc's heart flushes, and he kneels to the ground in front of her chair and looked her in the eyes.

"Yes I am, little lady, and how can I help you?" He replies. She hands him a photograph, and one glance at it is all he gets before she launches herself into him, wrapping her little arms around his neck.

"Thank you," she whispere quietly into his ear. Hercules Hansen nods, wrapping an arm around her as well. He stands up, the girl still in his arms, and begins to walk out of the Kwoon. Stacker Pentecost grabs his arm, and his eyes beg for an explanation, but Herc shakes his head, partially because he doesn't want to and partially because he doesn't have one.

"I'm talking her to the Mess for food," he states, walking out of the room and leaving the other three men speechless.

~•~

In the Shatterdome Mess Hall, Herc grabs a tray of food and places it in front of the girl. She glances at him, wondering if he's going to eat too, before digging into the food. Even though it's the Mess and the food is only slightly edible, she nearly inhales it, the Jaeger-pilot sized meal only barely filling her eleven-year-old-girl sized stomach. He waits for her to finish before beginning to talk.

"You look a lot like your father, you know. What's your name?" he asks kindly, trying not to scare her.

"Dakota," she replied easily, still licking the remains of the meal from her teeth.

"Where's your dad, Dakota?" At this question her eyes grow dark.

"The big robot took him," she responds frankly, pushing the tray away from her. Herc picks up the tray and offers his hand, which she takes, and they drop off the tray and behind walking around the Shatterdome as he asks her more questions, How'd you find me? Why'd you come here? to which she answers I saw you on TV. and The woman in the suit asked me where my other family was, and I said here.

"Dad!" the smaller Hansen calls. He runs down the crowded hallway, ducking between people before coming to a stop before his father. Mako Mori trails behind him, as always, peeking at the three before deciding she isn't needed and hurrying off. Chuck, finally noticing the girl hiding behind his father, asks in his usual arrogant tone, "Who's she?"

"Chuck, this is Dakota Emmett. She's my friend's daughter. She'll be staying with us from now on," Herc explains with a sigh. Chuck glances between his father and the new girl.

"She's small, ain't she?" Chuck said, leaning down so he could stick his face right in front of hers, close enough to the point where she had to look sideways to avoid his awkward glare.

"She's eleven, Chuck," Herc explains to his son with a sigh. The girl is still clutching his hand tightly, her small fist squeezing his thick, scarred fingers. He looks down at her, and she looks at him. "Go on," he whispers. "You can say let go." The small girl bites her lip and her hand reluctantly lets go of his finer, only to grip at the fabric of her dress so hard Herc is almost entirely sure it would rip if she tugged in the slightest.

"You're weird," Chuck blurts after Dakota says nothing. Herc watches his son grab the hand of the small girl who had just walked into his life and pull her across the station. He worries at first, but then again, what's the worse that could go wrong?

~•~

At night, Herc rounds up the two, makes them bid goodbye to Mako Mori, and brings them into the small dorm, and let's them each take a bunk, stealing a pillow from his brother, Scott, next door and sleeping on the ground next to Chuck. Dakota is only a bit worse for the wear: a bruise from a fall, a scratch from when Chuck scraped her while fighting in the Kwoon. One thing Herc knows wasn't there before is the smile on her face that only disappears when she slips into the best sleep she's gotten in a while, and even then her small lips flick upwards.

He thinks maybe this will be good.


End file.
